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 enlarge | Author: Roger Crowley
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $11.04
You Save: $18.96 (63%)
New (36) Used (13) from $7.78
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 4936
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6 x 2
ISBN: 1400066247
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.21
EAN: 9781400066247
ASIN: 1400066247
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Truly makes history come alive! October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is both authoritative and extraordinarily readable. It's truly a page-turner, even for people (like me) with no particular fascination with the sea battles between Islam and Christendom. Highly recommended!
 Excellent Book, But Not My Cuppa Tea October 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an authoritative book, chock with facts and amazement that would normally merit five stars from me. But, through no fault of the author, probably, I rate it four stars because, though brilliantly done, it bored me. Probably says more about me than the author, so I will give it a four for its scholarship, but I only got a three-star enjoyment out of it. And that's because this book is essentially about two battles and once each battle got underway, I found the descriptions boring. They were epic battles, with plenty of action and intrigue, but battles bore me. I can't read about all of the troop movements, flanking movements, legions of dead and wounded, etc., without my eyes glazing over. In other words, this book gave me more than I wanted. But I respect the views of other reviewers who found it outstanding. So, I'm trying to be positive because it is such an important piece of work. It just wasn't my cuppa.
Yesterday's happenings are today's reality September 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Here is a recounting of an era not well understood by many very smart people, including those with some considerable political and military background. For you especially, this is well worth the time investment. The book is certainly action-packed. However, more important than the stories of shocking brutality, horrific cruelty, stunning ignorance and unforgivable greed set in a century-long clash of civilizations, is the breathtaking realization that, other than technology, almost nothing about the mind of man has changed. At the end of this book, you might well ask yourself, `Are we really all that different today?'
Very Readable, Excellent Book for the Casual Reader September 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Empires of the Sea is a well written and concise history of the struggle between Habsburg Spain and the Ottoman Empire for control over the Mediterranean Sea. Crowley is an excellent historian with a keen eye for detail. He really knows how to tell a story and there are lots of good ones to be told in this book. There are at least four different major events covered in this book, the fall of Rhodes, the career of the great Ottoman Pirate Barbarossa, the siege of Malta, and the Battle of Lepanto, which could make for entertaining books in their own right. Crowley manages to tell all of their stories well and weave them into a coherent narrative.
The book is probably not comprehensive enough for serious scholars. But it is an entertaining read for anyone and an excellent introduction for the general reader to a largely forgotten episode of history.
Grippingly written September 11, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was not at all familiar with Mediterrean conflicts or politics during this period when I started this book. But "Empires of the Sea" is so well written in moving the story along and portraying the conflicts, that I really found it very gripping. I greatly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
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